Wanna See the First Three Pages of Our New Vicious Circus Comic?

New Vicious Circus hits Kickstarter August 25!

Amanda Rachels and I began making comics together in 2009. I mean, truly making comics, complete short stories with panels and letters, the whole shebang. We started with a sample script I wrote featuring Doom Patrol characters and then moved on to our first rudimentary concept, a Mardi Gras-themed superhero comedy we called Maskers. We’re both from near the true birthplace of Mardi Gras in North America, Mobile, Alabama, so Mardi Gras is in the blood for us. So, it was a sort of natural starting point to the “write what you know” tenet. Sharing one page of that first attempt is as much as my delicate ego is willing to expose at this point (haha).

Amanda fully illustrated and colored Maskers. You can blame me for the letters and dialogue.

There were 13 pages of Maskers in landscape format, as we were a little obsessed with breaking into DC’s Zuda competition back in the day. When that didn’t materialize, we developed a … grittier … superhero concept that we christened The Blind Eye, a self-hosted webcomic featuring a morally gray ensemble of street-level heroes in a New Orleans-style metropolis still half-submerged after a devastating hurricane. There were elements of voodoo and Lovecraftian monstrosities washed up in the storm.

We’ve…come a long way.

Springboarding from The Blind Eye (after 60 pages!), we entered an online contest for amateur comics creators and developed a concept for horror monsters twisted onto themselves to be the protectors of those they would be expected to prey upon. Thus were born our vigilante killer clowns from the Vicious Circus. From a 12-page “number zero” issue, we eventually (by 2012) crafted a 96-page graphic novel that we still proudly sell to this day (with some updated letters and colors in 2015). Nearly 400 pages of Vicious Circus comics have been produced over the ensuing years, and the stories are truly a timeline of our garnered experience and the improved skills that go with it.

Now, we are jumping headfirst into another 96-page killer clown epic that we’re calling Big House Big Top. This first 24-page installment is the start of a brand new tale. In our very first story, an otherwise docile birthday clown found herself in the position of protecting a child from an abuser, and she did so with ultimate vigor, killing the man and saving a little girl. Now, that birthday clown - Berniece to her friends - finds herself serving a long sentence in prison on a conviction of manslaughter, but the magical vigilante clowns of the Vicious Circus have plans for her, nonetheless.

Pages 1-3 of Vicious Circus: Big House Big Top

Despite her desire to eschew violence, Berniece is provoked by the circus with promises of power for taking revenge against those in the prison who harmed innocents. She is offered the chance to become a force beyond her normal abilities, to wield arcane might in brutal vindication of the helpless. Will she accept it? Will she sacrifice her promise to never kill again in favor of defending those who can't defend themselves?

Big House Big Top is available in two cover variants!

Vicious Circus: Big House Big Top is a 24-page, standard size (6.625" x 10.25") comic, the first of four in the series written by Vicious Circus co-creator Kevin LaPorte and illustrated by co-creator Amanda Rachels, with colors by Alivon Ortiz.

This new chapter of Vicious Circus launches on Kickstarter on Sunday, August 25, at 6:00 p.m. Central time. Choose from two different cover options, as well as a silver metal edition, and signed/sketched editions!

And, if you want a sneak peek at lettered versions of pages 1-3 of Big House Big Top, treat yourself to a paid subscription to this Substack, and access to those will open up below!